Scattered Chatterlings

I don’t know where you live but here in snow and ice bound Canada, (most places) there are times when the weather really stinks. (can’t you tell I don’t like winter weather, getting older can do that to you.) Yesterday we were supposed to get out for some appointments but the ice and snow thing kept us in the house once again. Long before the day was out there were reports of all kinds of traffic accident situations, including a liquid oxygen truck which had overturned.~ Speaking of oxygen in my quest for oxygen, I have learned that the air we breathe only contains 21% of pure oxygen/02, whereas 10,000 years ago that number was at 38%. The rest of the air is nitrogen/N2.~

~The good part of being home, was that the wife made some very delicious muffins, even Tim Horton’s don’t bake them this good, take my word for it.
The wife can at times be a little devious; in the respect that she has a hard time getting me to eat any fruit and resorts to all kinds of tricks to have me ingest fruit of any kind. Whenever I bite into one of her muffins, it can get to be a quite an adventure, for I can rest assured that I will always find fruit of some kind or another. Today she used bananas and chopped up apple along with raisins, it actually tasted very good.~
Maybe today’s the day I get to make a pot of chili. ……. I do make good chili so don’t laugh.~

~Just when you thought you had got away from yesterday’s topic, here I am again with a bit of a follow up to COPD. The term COPD by the way is also an umbrella term for a variety of lung related respiratory ailments, among which are emphysema, bronchitis and asthma to name a couple of the more obvious ones.
It is only recently in this country at least, that the term COPD has started to be more in the news, this is a good thing. Different groups have been trying for so long now to draw more attention to this disease and the costs involved to treat it. It has been studied that if a patient will go through a rehab program, exercise, and also get some in class education it is most beneficial. This in most cases is followed up by a rehab drop in, whereby a patient can help themselves to retain the ground they have gained in rehab. In most cases this all interprets into fewer hospitalizations and or a lesser stay. Of course this in turn would reduce the burden of costs on the healthcare system. The government it appears, are just now coming round to this way of thinking and recognizing the benefits of such programs. Accordingly hopes are high for the future in the approach to the treatment of this disease.~

It is very important to note, that in spite of having gone through rehab and also attending the drop in once a week. The patient has to have a home routine in place and that includes lots of walking, plus exercise with a couple of small 3lb dumbbells and maybe a theraband or two for stretching exercises. So even though I woke up earlier this morning with all the usual COPD related things that have now become, a daily routine, I still had my program to follow later. Usually you wake up in the morning with a very dry mouth that tastes more like an old smoke filled railway tunnel that runs through a Lime Quarry. You are also very S.O.B. (No! not silly old birch!). S.O.B in COPD language means Short of breath, (very) a term that is heard a lot in COPD circles. This is also the biggest visible symptom of COPD.~

The usual routine each day is first to get some liquids inside of you, for me this is a good cup of hot strong tea. Then there is what feels like a never ending parade of pills and inhalers, all designed to open your airways so that you can breathe better with some degree of comfort. This whole process can take about an hour to finish, mostly it all depends on how quickly you can get the ‘Bellows’ working reasonably ok. Makes for a real exciting thing to look forward to I can tell you.~

Where we live, we have been very lucky to have a bit of a bird haven you might say. Last year was wonderful with so much activity going on and also a great variety of birds now pretty well resident here the year round. Of course we do feed them and make sure that they don’t go short of food through the winter months. What had been somewhat obvious lately were the absence of the Cardinals, Blue Jays and Woodpeckers.
Well all that changed this morning as they all showed up at differing times, accompanied by the ever present Chickadees and Sparrows.~

The winter this year is unlike any that I have ever seen, since I first came to this country forty one years ago. It has been so warm compared to the weather we normally get here, in the central part of the country.
So these species of birds being more the cooler weather types, just have not been around, while that warm spell was on.~

Today the weather outside today is quite cold, as winter seems to have finally arrived with a cold snap that is more indicative of the weather we expect each year.~

Well speaking of cold & warm~ Tea is up and it‘s time to start cooking!~ C’ya